My Belimbing Tree

Welcome to my little potted garden. My plants are all in pots and containers except for a few plants and a belimbing tree growing on the ground in my little backyard. I love gardening. I love planting floral plants, leafy plants, vegetables and herbs, almost any kind of plants. Staying in a terrace house with limited gardening space, I have to make do with pots and containers instead. There is so much to learn about gardening and caring for your plants. There is one thing that I have learned from gardening is that you have to be very patient, really patient, just waiting for your plants to grow and mature. Plants do really make a house a home. That's what I think, just like making bread, the aroma of the bread being baked in the kitchen really makes a house a home.

I have a plant which I'm most proud of, that is my very own "belimbing tree". The scientific name for this plant is "averrhoe bilimbi". You can check out the brief description of this tree from my other blog "mycookinggallery.blogspot.com" or you can find out more details from the web by just typing the word "averrhoe bilimbi". The fruits are very sour and is used in cooking among other uses. I have not seen the fruits being sold in any market so far, all the more that I really treasure this wonderful plant! You can find this fruit tree in areas outside the city.

"Belimbing tree" at my backyard. This tree is flowering now. The fruits can be harvested about 2 months from now.

My dearest late mom used to tell us that this plant is not that easy to germinate. This tree will bear thousands of fruits and hundreds of ripe fruits may fall to the ground, but you almost never find a baby plant sprouting from the ground. It's true. I planted this tree about ten years ago and thousands of fruits later, I have not seen any baby plant sprouting! I actually planted it from the seeds. I was out walking one evening and saw this belimbing tree growing at one of the houses around my area with lots of fallen fruits on the ground. So I picked two ripe ones and took it home to try my luck. Within a week two plants sprouted! I was lucky, I guess. A few weeks later one of the plants wilted and only one remain. When it is much bigger at about 8 to 10 inches in height, I transplanted it on the ground, keeping my fingers crossed that it would survive. It did! Ten years later, thousands of fruits later, this tree remain as my favourite plant!

These two photos was taken a couple of months back when the tree is full of fruits. I once harvested about 12kg of fruits in one picking !

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